Daily Logs

Nizuc - Blog 23 Nizuk

Blog 23 – Squall or NothingThird night with limited power.We have torches, and some battery operated lights, but are mostly fumbling around between helm, galley, and bed, during the nights. Try blindfolding yourself at bedtime, and see how many objects you can kick on the way to bed. If you can’t get into your sleeping bag, the chances are it’s not your bag, or someone is already in it (everyone else snores, so this would be your clue).The excitement at the moment is spotting and avoiding squalls. A SQUALL is an acronym for Sequential Quatorial Upsurge At Localised Latitudes. When you think there is a squall coming, the sails need to be reduced, all hatches closed, windows shut, and waterproofs or shorts on, depending on temperature. Usually, by the time you have done all this, the. read more...

Verbena - Day 16 - Land Oh!

At 8am we spotted St. Lucia through the distant cloud cover, what a sight!  The night before, just as we were thinking about a pasta dinner, the line hits and it is Dorado for our last at sea supper.  All are excited for arrival today and we wish our friends still at sea safe passage.  — BillLandHo fish2. read more...

Zaurak's Bimbling Blog

Zaurak's Bimbling BlogTuesday 10th December 2019Skipper RichardRunning a successful trip across the high seas requires a great deal of leadership and teamwork. This is headed up by the skipper, Richard Walsh. The crew are made of family and lifelong friends, so we should know our leader at sea quite well. We posed a few questions to the crew then checked in with the skipper the see how close our dead reckonings were on the Richard Walsh chart. QUESTION 1: what is skipper's hot drink of choice and how should it be prepared? All crew: instant coffee with many sugars and milk. Claire: this, at any time of day and night and regardless of how many coffees he has had already. Skipper Richard: coffee, as you know. Two sugars and milk. Everyone tries to skimp on the sugars, I have noted.. read more...

Salamander - Day 16 Ice Pops at 2,000 Miles

Hello Salamander Nation,Beautiful conditions today and another epic accomplishment - we've now sailed more than 2,000 miles!As we so often do, our crew was gathered in the cockpit discussing the recent hot sunny weather and trading stories. . read more...

Celtic Star - Blog 15 Day 16 Tuesday 10th December

Yesterday we had a few hours when conditions moderatedand we were not being thrown around all the time.  Overnight we had a bigsquall with deluging rain and winds over 30 knots. The sea conditions are direwith waves coming from all over the place, making it impossible to stay still inbed - trying to jam pillows and duvets in! Anyway we had a lovely sunrise whichevolved from pink to orange with clouds and sunrays making it a wonderful show!  Lots of rainbows as well.Presently the log says 2499 so we have an ETA ofThursday midday!!Found some more fresh veg which is lasting verywell, stir fry last night and disappointingly the tinned apricots were in factpeaches (which were OK but a bitdisappointing).Petra. read more...

Jua Kali - The Jua Kali Report - Day 17

Day 17.We are officially out of coffee.This is a disaster, especially as we were doing well with all the annoying random things that go wrong on a sailing boat!At least we have started to go fast again now, which is good because if we don't arrive soon we will be sailing in zombie mode. Now we are counting down the miles even more eagerly. Just over 200nm to go now!- Franek writing for the Jua Kali Report.. read more...

Challenger 1 - Crew blog Challenger 1 09/12/19

(9/12/19)During our watch before dawn it was my best watch of all, Krishna did some wraps but she ate more than me that annoyed me very much but the watch leader Anna eased me a little when she baked the most delicious cake I have eaten in a while. On our return watch I realised that the previous watch had gybed and noticed we were in a more westerly direction which made Tyrus dance with joy knowing that home can’t be far away. Moments before lunch I saw the monkey in skipper Gary when he had to climb the mast to remove the topping lift around the shrouds. Then came lunch time which resulted in Anna cooking some delicious lunch but I just felt for something local but the real driving forces were Krishna and Tyrus making me feel like I became a dad at the age of five (5).I cooked one pot. read more...

Next Step - Monday 9th December 2019

During the night the weather has been very much kinder and we have been making steady progress west. However, we are edging a bit too far south so it was time to do a bit of pole dancing and gybe the genoa. Not such an easy job when the boat is rolling around quite so much... a good workout for the day. In the afternoon it became necessary to take a further reef in the mainsail as the wind was getting up and 14.5 knots seemed a bit of a dangerous speed, even when you are surfing down a wave. For lunch David made us some very nice ham wraps and we had a binge on chocolate bars with our coffee, just because..! We have not done any fishing today so for supper Jeremy is going to make us all a bacon, mushroom and onion omelette. We have quite a few eggs that need to be used up before the end. read more...

Hatha Maris - hatha maris day 15 13/12/2019

Hatha Maris day 15 13/12/2019... Should I gybe or should I not ... Thalita. read more...

Idefix - update day 16

Last week of a transatlantic crossing. Shoot, not enough time left to do all what we wanted. But what exactly was that.... While Sunday night was rough, Today was really feeling like perfect tradewinds: 16-19kts, 90degree of wind, reasonable swell, blue sky with small cumulus clouds, and sea temperature at 28C!We are all looking for a swim now, getting urgent. This water temp is so tempting.Veronique found a pdf with tons of old 80s variety songs lyrics, guitar out and here comes the afternoon activity when no sail changes and no fish.Hello Bianco. Shoot, another monohull coming out fast out of nowhere and likely going to pass us again. Tomorrow we'll have to get the asymmetric back on.560 miles to go, should be there by Friday. Really it goes fast. Nice and easy passage making aboard. read more...

Amadeus - blog Dec 9

Few important things were not mentioned in the previous post. First of all, according to Hungarian traditions, Santa visited Amadeus on St. Nicholaus day (6th Dec), and left a piece of chocholate Santa in all crewmembers deckshoe. Luckily everybody discovered this little surprise before putting on their shoes...We gave up fishing finally. Few days ago not only the last lures, but the rode gone, too. Fishing is not our sport.Last days were really busy. Two days ago, in the middle of the night, the jib halyard shackle released the sail, so it falled into the water. Qick fishing and the sail was on deck. The weather was stable so we decided on prompt repair and not to wait until morning. Stable weather meant 20-25 kn wind and 2-3m waves. Was not an easy mast climb. The furler came down, the. read more...

Meltemi - Tag 16: Bordbuch der Meltemi, Nachschlag.

Heute hatten wir einen heißen Tag. jetzt in der Abendstunde kühlt es ab, wir haben das Bimini schon wieder geborgen, und oben im Cockpit sind die Müllwerker am Start. Zack!Krach!Schepper! Dabei wurde mir versprochen, segeln sei eine ruhige Art der Reise, und jeder Segler froh wenn die Maschine endlich aus ist. Kann ich nur bedingt bestätigen.Zwichen den Müllaktivitäten hindurch bahnt sich ein Mitsegler den Weg nach achtern, nachdem er zuvor gefühlte 5 Minuten am Niedergang stand und konsterniert-unschlüssig das Geschehen beobachtete. Der Backschafter ruft dazwischen: "fange dann jetzt mit dem Kochen an". Ich koche langsam auch, nicht wegen der Hitze hier unten, sondern - wie soll man sich da konzentrieren...Dabei habe ich den Auftrag, zu gestern noch einen Nachschlag zu geben. Ich hatte. read more...

Agua Dulce - Log Day 16 – Counting down the miles!

We have broken the 700NM to go mark, and at 750NM to go, we were three-quarters of the way to St. Lucia. During my 11pm-1am watch tonight, we should break the 600NM mark as well. We’re all getting excited to be in the Caribbean! I wish I had downloaded some steel drum Christmas music to get us in the island holiday spirit. I will have to be content to listen to Kenny Chesney’s “All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan”. We had a much more comfortable night last night. This morning, the size of the swells dropped dramatically and so did the terrible rocking from side to side. Unfortunately, the winds have also died down so we are not just flying along toward our destination. We could probably fly the spinnaker if squalls weren’t threatening, but they’ve been a constant companion. read more...

Zaurak's Bimbling Blog

Zaurak's Bimbling BlogMonday 9th December 2019 The mood on the boat is sleepy today. We're thundering along at a reasonable 7 to 8 knots, but skipper and crew are somewhat docile. Shift sleeping for 16 days and corkscrew waves since Tuesday has sent us into an ocean daze. Number of tuna: zero. Some creature bit off the hook. Number of whales sightings: zeroAmount of sargasso weed sighted: a lot. Climate change evidenced.. read more...

Little Island - 336 hours

I’m taking a longer time each day to add another 24 in my ongoing times tables. Maybe it’s the slow, silent encroachment of exhaustion that’s causing me to check, doubt, re-check, re-doubt and finally check again that I have correctly added the hours of a spin of the Earth onto our running total. I don’t think we’re feeling terribly tired, but I’m sure we probably are. At home we used to be a ‘bed by 2130 and up at 0800’ couple, waking at 0630 if we wanted to do some exercise. That’s a worst case scenario of 9 hours of lovely slumber. We wouldn’t dare start a movie after 1930. Perish the thought of getting as little as eight hours sleep in a night. Now we’re realistically getting five hours per 24 hours, on a hot, sweaty, moving mattress. We’re both sleeping in the forepeak, but. read more...

Nizuc - Blog 22 Nizuc

BLOG22 – Happy Birthday, Kenny.Kenny’s birthday, today (6/12). His favourite present was a bottle of rum from the crew, which we are hoping he will share. To celebrate, he baked a Shetland brownie, which was like fruitcake, but better. We did order flowers from an Aussie delivery/kangaroo company: they sent Flipper, who turned up, and showed us some tricks, but alas, he seemed to have forgotten the flowers. When we asked what kind of flowers he was meant to be delivering, he said they were Dolphiniums.Ba dum tish.Tumbleweed.Navigating without the usual instruments has been fun. We had a squall that was so heavy, the cockpit couldn’t drain fast enough, making it a bit like a paddling pool. Martin had to shine a torch at the compass, and shout the numbers out, and it came on so fast, we. read more...

Montana - Log 5

Day 14, now 2 weeks at sea. Spirit and mood is still good. But that was needed for the upcoming night. Endless numerous squalls is a row. Up to 40Kn of wind true. Crew and Skipper was working hard to get the best out of it. By the end with success, we gain some miles of our competitors. So St. Lucia will see us soon.Day 15, Our thoughts are with those who got injured on other boats at sea, hope the get well soon. In the morning we got to ambitious and tried the spinnaker. Unfortunately with not much success. Took a lot of water on the boat and had a hard time to control it. Took a while to get back to trade wind set up. So we lost some miles. Hope we doing better today.Markus, Montana --. read more...

Saoirse - Saoirse Diaries-17- Reflections from the cockpit

I was surprised at how little life we saw during the crossing. For the better part of the journey we were alone on this vast ocean, no other boats on the horizon. We had one small school of dolphins come play beside us, and another two enormous dolphins, the likes of which none of us had ever before seen, jump up once right beside the boat just to say hello as they passed and then dive never to be seen by us again. No idea what kind they were but they were huge. We also had a bird that circled us for a few hours one day totally sending Óisin into an excited frenzy. Ah birdie, birdie mama, birdie!! Cúisle named it Brave because it was so far out at sea alone. Sometimes when I was on watch sitting at the wheel and would look to the horizon, nothing but sea in all directions, I had the. read more...

Hatha Maris - Hatha Maris day 14 8/12/2019

Hatha Maris day 14 8/12/2019The kids of Hatha Maris When we (Ebba & Sophia) told our friends and family about our crossing we were asked questions like “are you prepared for a trans Atlantic sailing?”, “What do your parents think about it?”, and “Have you ever done something similar before?”. To be honest we both thought we were pretty good sailors, since it is what we have been doing during our childhood summers. After the first night, our thoughts about ourselves were not as high... ;) We both got quite seasick and our helming was a disaster. We both jibed by accident several times, thinking “why are we even doing this?”. After a while we were put to bed and slept through out first watches. In the morning, we felt better and it was time for “sailing school” as our awesome coach. read more...

Challenger 1 - Crew blog Challenger 1

Saturday 7th December 2019 the red watch began the day with a seven (7) to one (1) shift. I (Krishna) kinda helped with lunch preparation with cutting some cheese and carrots, in my spare time today I visualized and drew down some cricket fielding positions according to how I bowl when in the game of play which was quite relaxing (getting my mind off the pain in my leg).  During today’s briefing skippey (gary) told us that we’re four(4) to five(5) days away from home/ St. Lucia ( 800 nautical miles).Later this day if only luck was really on our side we could have caught the biggest catch of the trip but like I said we was unlucky.( Krishna Red Watch)After a long night of many squalls and some very close crash gybes, we settled into are morning watch. Red watch carried out an early. read more...

Jua Kali - The Jua Kali Report - Day 16

Day 16 on board Jua Kali.Overall the wind has been fairly light for the past 24 hours aside from some rainy squalls at the beginning of the day.This has meant that we needed to change tactics a bit, it's no use trying to sail as deep as possible (to sail the shortsest distance) if we are barely moving! So we have decided to sail at higher angles than before leading to some experimentation with sail plans that the boat doesn't normally see.Also experimentally the fishing team is testing out using the suicidal flying fish that we find on the boat each morning as bait/lures as we are out of proper ones. This has yet to be successful but its good to try something, hopefully we catch anything other than the weed which is slowly becoming more prominent. Unfortunately the light wind has meant a. read more...

Little Island - 360 hours

In my sleep I seem to have developed some strange, disoriented worry; always acutely conscious of the need to sympathetically keep the boat moving without overloading it, despite being lost in sleep. Sadly my depth of sleep has been wholly unsatisfying the last couple of days. Although I only usually manage a precious few hours, they are necessarily quality hours. Now the hours are no longer but the overall rest is far worse. I’m not sure why, but I’m sure good sleep will return. While sleeping I seem to believe that I have fallen asleep on watch. Every big roll of the boat jolts me awake, causing me to quickly look around to check the helm, but it isn’t there. One shift yesterday I woke up suddenly and frantically felt around to grab the wheel. I couldn’t find it. I must have been. read more...

Next Step - Sunday 8th December 2019

During the night we seem to get a squall coming through every hour with strong winds and lots of rain so we are all a bit damp. Although, David somehow managed to miss most of the squalls on his watch..! In the morning the day started well with plenty of sun and no rain or squall clouds…all will probably change later in the day I am sure. During the afternoon, the sea swells continued but the wind tended to be a bit variable with the wind going up and down all the time. It has been sunny and cloudy but at least it looks as though the evening may be better than last night as there are no clouds on the horizon behind us. David has not been feeling particularly brilliant for the last couple of days so will not be partaking in supper this evening which will be made by me, maybe he has got. read more...

Idefix - Update day 15

Interesting how one day can be somehow different than the other... While yesterday was busy, today was not: no fish and no change in sails. After we gybed in early morning, nothing really happened.True there were much more squalls, but we just sails through. Weather forecast still a bit off especially wind direction, whether squall or not. Only two important events: 2 weeks at sea "anniversary", and dolphins visiting at sunset. Rest of the day was resting, reading and preparing food as usual... Question: What food are you craving for that you'll eat first when in saint Lucy? Answer: when we arrive in saint Lucy, we'll have to go on a diet!!!c.. read more...

Verbena - Day 14 - Getting Close!

Oh we are close.  Under 350 nm and currently heading straight at St. Lucia.  Just had a meat and potatoes meal and we are all hoping for a fish tomorrow to round out our trip with a fresh tuna dinner.  We are making way with a reefed main and poled out jib.  The boat is moving well and simple to reduce or adjust sails as squalls come up.  Squalls have been ever present the last few days, but today was a break.  We could see some off to the sides, but non found their way to us, thankfully.  — BillReneeKids - dec 8 Bill-dec8 Jeff - dec 8. read more...

Meltemi - Tag 15: Bordbuch der Meltemi, "Streckbug"

Sonntag, der 2. Advent. Christstollentag. Es hat sich tatsächlich die ganze Woche niemand an den Kuchen herangetraut, so das wir wieder im Schatten unseres Weihnachtsbaumes (Höhe ca 15 cm) ein Stück heimatliche Kultur pflegen können. Draußen scheint im Prinzip die Sonne, aber außerhalb des Prinzips ziehen immer wieder Squalls durch und lassen uns patschnass zurück. Meist schleichen sie sich von hinten oder der Seite heran, plötzlich frischt der Wind auf und statt 14 - 15 haben wir - zack - ca 25, gelegentlich bis über 30 Knoten Wind (wahrer). Da heißt es flugs reffen - könnte ja noch schlimmer werden - und den Vor-Wind-Kurs, auf dem wir nun segeln seit wir uns von der afrikanisachen Küste gelöst haben, den drehenden Winden anpassen. Nur ja keine Patenthalse, und wenn der Seegang hoch ist. read more...

Agua Dulce - Log Day 15 – Squalls + Swells = Lack of Sleep

It was a wet and squally night. We had lots of rain and gusts in the 30’s, but it was all manageable. The worst part about squalls is that when they pass they suck the energy out of the air, and we have practically no wind for a time. In addition, the seas were extremely rolly last night and they have continued to be today as well. All in all, it made for a very bad night’s sleep. Charles sleeps sideways in our bed in the aft cabin wedged in between the wood cabinets at the head of the bed. I sleep in the main saloon on the settee wedged between it and the dining table. Tracy and Keith sleep wedged up against each other in the forward cabin. I’ll be glad to leave this Atlantic swell behind us.The good news is that we have now less than 800NM to go! We hope to arrive Friday if the winds. read more...

Sally - Squalls, sun and dolphins

This morning we get a series of refreshing squalls followed by a blue sunny sky and a wind that was stabilized around SSE and 18 knots. So first a lot of reefing, gybing and unreefing. After that we have been reaching or sailing wing on wing on our route to Saint Lucia. The todays position report showed that a couple of boats has arrived to Saint Lucia, while we still have 850 nm to sail. We enjoy the time onboard and today we was visited by a group of dolphins. We also catchedmore flying fish on the deck, think we soon will look and smell like fishing boat :) The food is still super good and todays lunch was a tortilla with a zucchini curry and pickled onions. For dinner we had meat balls with meshed potatoes and lingon berry jam and peaches with whipped cream as dessert. No other boats. read more...

Skyelark of London - Squalls

We have had interesting overnight watches again withsqualls and associated moderate winds. Each watch was challenged with at least an hour of heavy rain and theopportunity to reset the sails to the conditions making the time on deck goquickly and giving us all an excellent offshore sailing experience.  Sighted a large freighter this morning,on its way to South America.  Thiswas our first encounter with commercial shipping since we left the area nearcoastal Africa between Las Palmas and Cape Verde.  Big ships leave quite the impression aswe have not been exposed to the modern world in many days.  The crew conducted a gybe this morning(like a tack but with the wind coming from behind the boat) , this manoeuvrerequires the entire team working together to reorient. read more...

Salamander - Day 15 Picture Perfect

Day 15Picture PerfectDear Salamander Nation,We are sending these blogs through the sameYB unit that provides tracking information for the YB Races app. Unfortunately, the unit's bandwidth is insufficient for posting photographs.If we could post photos, we would have lots of great material to choose from.David, in particular, is an accomplished photographer. Most times when he is on deck and not on watch, he is taking shots of the crew in action, the sky and the seas.Once back to good wifi, we plan to create a site where we can share our photographs. . read more...

Escapado - Sometimes squalls are just squalls

Sometimes squalls are just squallsThe night began with a cat and mouse game, gybing, changing course and running away from the squalls. The almost full moon made the first night watches more pleasant and it seemed that we were winning in the game. Yet this was the first level only and soon the squalls came in wide inescapable fronts. See the squall, gybe the jib, drop the vang when the gusts are highest and pull it back in, gybe the jib back, get wet, very wet, steer in low visibility eerie darkness. Repeat at least 2 times per watch.With the daylight the squalls became a bit more fun, as the cold and wet moments were followed by the heat of the tropical sun. After rain claimed all our dry clothes,Kristian had a Tom Cruise moment. In a white dress shirt - the only dry thing left- he. read more...

Zaurak's Bimbling Blog

Zaurak's Bimbling BlogSunday 8th December 2019 ProvisioningDay 15 at sea. This morning the crew chose from a mixed breakfast of muesli, bran flakes, toast and tinned peaches, alongside tea, instant and fresh coffee. Lunch was freshly baked bread, creamy butter, freshly made coleslaw and boiled eggs, Gran Canarian cheese, and the skipper's favourite, Marmite. We are soon to tuck into the end of the post-mid-point Toblerone. How, after 15 days away from land and food markets, are we able to maintain this level of variation and deliciousness? Over to our provisioner for the trans-Atlantic crossing, Claire Walsh.A: Claire, what made you take on the task in the first place?C: the fact that my dad [skipper] would have had nothing but Marmite, instant coffee and Weetabix on board had I not done. read more...

Distraction - Sunday Morning

It’s a relaxed Sunday morning for the crew of Distraction - hello to everyone who is following us. The big seas, grey skies and squalls we encountered yesterday have passed through and we are enjoying beautiful blue sky again and although the big swell is present it is not causing such bad rolling as over the last few days and we’re enjoying a comfortable sail again, with 15-20 knots of wind. Our position is currently 870 miles to destination and based on our daily mileage we should reach St Lucia on Friday afternoon/ evening just in time for sundowners!! Thursday saw another productive fishing afternoon..a few minutes after putting the reals out we landed a whopping Dorado measuring 1.10m from head to tail. Stuart and Simon had to pull it in by hand finally as the weight broke the real.. read more...

Distraction - Sunday Morning

It’s a relaxed Sunday morning for the crew of Distraction - hello to everyone who is following us. The big seas, grey skies and squalls we encountered yesterday have passed through and we are enjoying beautiful blue sky again and although the big swell is present it is not causing such bad rolling as over the last few days and we’re enjoying a comfortable sail again, with 15-20 knots of wind. Our position is currently 870 miles to destination and based on our daily mileage we should reach St Lucia on Friday afternoon/ evening just in time for sundowners!! Thursday saw another productive fishing afternoon..a few minutes after putting the reals out we landed a whopping Dorado measuring 1.10m from head to tail. Stuart and Simon had to pull it in by hand finally as the weight broke the real.. read more...

Scarlet Oyster - Home straight!

Hi again,Seems like we are closing in on St Lucia as it is getting seriously warm!I am glad we found a more Northern route than some others as it would have been very sweaty this far South for too long!The cloud activity has kept us on our toes with frequent sail changes from Spinnaker to poled out jib through squalls to small reaching A sail and back to our workhorse large heavy symmetric which has powered us 90% of the time since we got in the trades.Whist the clouds have slowed us a bit, the guys tireless efforts with frequent sail changes and endless wooling of spinnakers has mitigated the damage done to our speed, whilst at all times keepingthe boat and seat within sensible limits!Our worst case scenarios for the cloud etc was worse than reality and we have been almost matching our. read more...